


Normal

by StoriwrYNos



Category: The Society (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Care, Caretaking, Comfort, Communication, Denial of Feelings, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Falling In Love, Feelings, Flirting, Growing feelings, Headcanon, Romance, Some spoilers are implicit, Spoilers...kinda, Start of Relationship, Stoned Harry is implicit, What if Cassandra didn't die, fluff?, romantic feelings, soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 10:01:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19944331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoriwrYNos/pseuds/StoriwrYNos
Summary: What if prom went a little different and instead of staying to clear up alone, Cassandra found a drunk (high) Harry and took him home?Basically a what could have been between Cassandra and Harry.





	Normal

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so I know that Cassandra was actually only in The Society for couple of episodes but while I was watching it I genuinally thought they were setting up Harry and Cassandra because they had real chemistry!! Anyway, it wasn't too be so all I can do is create my own headcanons! 
> 
> This fic starts the night of prom and pretty much everything is the same except for two things. Number 1, Gordie and Cassandra are not a thing because Gordie is precious and I don't want him to get hurt by Cassandra ! Second, the conversation between the boys at the pool didn't happen before prom. Aside from that, pretty much everything is still the same.

“Oh my god, seriously?” Cassandra sighed and closed her eyes rubbing them tightly. When she had volunteered to clear up the hall she had clearly misjudged the amount of mess she would have to clear up because here was Harry Bingham, slouched low in a chair in front of her. His eyes were closed and the fact that his forehead was scrunched up was the only thing that told Cassandra that he was anything other than unconscious. His suit jacket had clearly been discarded somewhere and his collar was popped open. Hair stood out at every angle around his head. Even if she had not been able to smell the alcohol on his breath, Harry was providing an orgy of evidence that he was far from sober. 

Chucking a few more cups into the rubbish bag she was carrying, Cassandra surveyed the scene around her. The place was still an absolute tip so chances were she would have to come back in the morning to finish up anyway. Besides, if she was honest with herself she was getting pretty tired, although taking care of Harry would hardly increase her chances of getting into bed anytime soon.  
After debating with herself for a while, she officially made the decision that had been hers all along and tied off the half full rubbish bag she had been filling. Throwing it to the side, she reached into her handbag and pulled out a bobble to tie up her hair both to stop it from getting in her face and to prevent the possibility of Harry accidentally yanking individual hairs from her scalp when she inevitable had to hoist his arm over her shoulder. 

“Come on then.” It wasn’t clear whether Cassandra was speaking more to Harry or to herself, given that Harry seemed even less conscious than he had before. When she reached to tug Harry to his feet, though, she received confirmation that he was, in fact, not passed out in the form of a groan; a groan which was almost matched by Cassandra as she had to take his full weight onto her shoulder.  
Slowly, she stumbled over to the front door and raised her hand to put off the light. But, before she did so, she turned and took one final look at the room where they had held their prom. It was enough to make her want to cry. 

Half of the reason why tears sprang to Cassandra’s eyes was because with the room all decked out: the recently abandoned dance floor, the mountain of high heels left under one of the tables, the empty plastic cups, the streamers snaking their way around the tables and the slowly deflating balloons, it was so easy to pretend that this was their actual prom night. It was so easy to pretend that, instead of lugging Harry back to his abandoned house and then making her way back to her own where Allie and Will would either already be asleep or holding private conference in Allie’s room that Cassandra didn’t belong in, all she had to do was carry Harry to the bench where she would ring her Dad. Within minutes he would come and pick her up and they would drive Harry back to his together where Harry’s parents would laugh their classic, boys-will-boys laughs that Cassandra hated. When they were driving away, Cassandra’s Dad would ask her how her night had been and she would laugh, telling them about it all and how it had been the perfect end to her high school career. 

However, there was another reason why Cassandra felt on the verge of tears. Namely, what they had actually achieved, rather than what could have been. It could have been so easy, and had been so easy, during the first few days of their new society to tear each other to shreds. This behaviour could so easily have kept going and they could all have been dead or dying by now. Rather, though, they had organised a party that gave everyone something to look forward to, that had put a smile on everyone’s faces, that had brought them together like the community they were going to have to be if they were ever going to survive whatever hellscape they were in. It made Cassandra proud and that pride burned behind her eyes in the form of threatening tears.  
Right on cue, Harry groaned again and Cassandra let out a humourless laugh as she swatted at the tears that had managed to escape the barricade of her eyelashes. Of course Harry was there to remind her that although most people had been there to have fun and make connections, some had been there purely for the free alcohol. With the moment of her reverie broken, Cassandra flipped of the light switch and turned to leave the hall. 

They were halfway back to Harry’s when Cassandra felt her heart start beating a little too fast and knew that she needed to sit down. With no park benches in sight and no cars on the road, she unceremoniously plonked herself down on the curb, pulling Harry after her.  
Harry had not been much help on their journey so far, leaning most of his weight on her and flipping between mumbling and singing under his breath. Cassandra pretty much falling to the curb, though, seemed to catch his attention. 

“Have we reached the bus stop?” He joked, but Cassandra could barely hear him what with the sound of her own too rapid heartbeat filling her ears. She breathed as calmly as she could, placing her hand on her chest as if she could physically slow her heart rate. 

“Hey, you ok?” Distantly, the sound of Harry voice reached her and it scared her. Harry’s voice had been gentle, sincere. One of the only things that she had been able to count on as a certainty since they had entered this mad world was that Harry would make sarcastic comments at her so hearing him sounding concerned about her made everything about ten times worse. 

“I’m fine, just shut up.” She snapped. Surprisingly, Harry listened to her and in the messed up part of Cassandra’s brain this made things worse again. When did he ever listen to her? It must have been the alcohol, she attempted to kid herself, maybe he turned into a nicer version of himself when he drank. It was just about plausible enough to get Cassandra focusing on slowing down her heart rate again. 

After a few moments had passed, Cassandra’s breathing was finally even again and she closed her eyes tightly as she breathed out through her mouth and in through her nose, hoping the storm had passed, at least for now. 

Once she was brave enough to open her eyes again, she turned and found Harry sitting with his back down on the pavement, looking up at the starts with a blank, wide eyed look of either pure indifference or pure awe. It was the most unguarded Cassandra had ever seen him and this again made fear rise in her stomach. Not, this time, because it made her fear for her life, but because when Harry looked like that and when he had spoken to her gently it had made a warmth grow in her stomach. Cassandra was scared about what that warmth meant because she refused to be the girl who fell for the guy who was mean to her or the girl who fell for the guy because she thought she could save him from himself. She had and would be and do many things before they got out of here she was sure. Not that. 

“Right, up you get and don’t be so lazy this time.” Cassandra clambered to her feet as she tried to quell her fears with a sarcastic comment. Something she was sure she and Harry had in common.  
It took a moment for Harry’s gaze to shift to her and it did, Cassandra saw it; the same thing that had been in his voice: concern. He opened his mouth to speak and Cassandra knew what was coming; knew that she had to stop it because she didn’t know how respond both to the question and to this new Harry Bingham who was sitting, looking up at her. 

“I must have had too much to drink. I’m sure you can understand that.” Again, with the sarcastic comments but if Harry wasn’t going to make them, someone had to make sure the world didn’t fall completely off of it’s axis. For a moment if looked as if Harry was going to fight her but then he reached his hand up to be helped to his feet. 

“Cassandra Pressman drinking too much, what will the neighbours say?” He asked smugly, and Cassandra was so relieved that he was being sarcastic again that the supressing of the suspicion that Harry was doing it because she knew that was what she wanted was almost unconscious. 

When Harry’s house finally came into view, Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief: she would finally get to go home and lie down in bed and forget everything that happened since everyone else left the party. 

Attempting to follow through the plan that she had formulated back at the hall: to leave Harry at the end of the driveway or by the front door at least, Cassandra extricated herself from Harry’s grip. For about a millisecond, Harry stood up and held his own bodyweight. A millisecond later and he had tumbled off of the curb, falling into a heap on the road. 

Quickly, Cassandra squatted down to see if he was ok. His form was shaking and for a moment it freaked her out before she realised that his body was racking with laughter. It took her another second to realise that she was laughing too. Another second and she could feel that warmth rising again but she was too tired, and had had too little reason to laugh recently, not to keep doing it. 

“Idiot.” She breathed out, but it was much softer than the other times she had used the word to describe Harry. 

With it clear that Harry would not be making it safely into his house unaccompanied, Cassandra made the big effort of pulling him back up and slinging his arm over her shoulders once again. In this position, they staggered up the garden path. 

It was another ten minutes at least before Cassandra was pulling Harry’s arm off her shoulder once more and sitting him down the edge of his bed. When she was sure he would not topple again, she headed to the bathroom and got him a glass of water. Back in the bedroom, Harry had not moved an inch from where she had placed him. She briefly wondered what he had been drinking. If all accounts were true, and where Harry Bingham was concerned, they probably were, then Harry could hold his drink pretty well but he was almost completely out of it now and had not sobered up much in their walk back from the hall. 

“Look I’ve got to go.” She told him gently, placing the glass of water in his slightly shaking hand. 

Without a response, she turned to go but as she stepped away, Harry spoke. 

“Don’t.” Her foot froze where she had planted it. “It’s not safe.” His words washed over Cassandra and she considered them carefully. Her mother had repeatedly made her and Allie promise that they would never walk home alone at night; that they would always call their parents no matter the time and no matter where they were. Now, Cassandra had no parents to call. But were there people here with them that would do what her mother feared? Cassandra would have loved to say no whole heartedly but she just couldn’t. Besides, she had seemingly made so many enemies in their short time here that there were many people who might take an opportunity if they saw one in the form of her walking alone at night. An opportunity to do what, Cassandra did not even want to consider. Not after Campbell had pulled a gun on her during their first night here. 

“What am I meant to do Harry, stay here?” Cassandra asked desperately feeling suddenly emotional. All she wanted to do was go home but she couldn’t even do that for fear of being hurt. 

“Yes. You take the bed; I’ll take the floor.” 

When she heard Harry moving, Cassandra turned around and managed to dash to catch him before he fell again. 

“You can’t-“ Cassandra went to object but Harry cut her off. 

“I’m not going to lie to you Cassandra, I’m literally on the verge of passing out right now so stop trying to take the moral high ground for once in your life and sleep on the bed.” 

If Cassandra was not to tired and frustrated she might have noticed that Harry’s sarcasm only returned when he wanted her to do something that she didn’t want to do. She didn’t notice, but she did help Harry ease himself onto the floor at the bottom of his bed. 

“You’re making a big assumption here that I trust you enough to sleep in the same room as you.” Cassandra whispered as Harry let go of her and unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt. 

“I’m not going to touch you Cassandra. You go to sleep; I’ll be down here. You wake up, I’ll be right down here.” Despite his clear lack of sobriety that genuine quality was back in Harry’s tone again and Cassandra realised that, fool though she may be, she did trust him. Right now, on this very specific point, at least. 

Running her hands through her hair, she thought about it a moment more before deciding that the devil that she knew in Harry Bingham was better than the devil that she didn’t outside.  
When she looked down to tell Harry her decision, he was already fast asleep, with no blanket or pillow at all. For a moment she considered leaving him like that. It was a stupid thought, though. She knew she couldn’t leave anyone, even Harry in that position when she knew he would wake up feeling like hell because of the hangover, never mind with added back ache and a crick in his neck. 

Quickly, she grabbed a pillow and blanket off of the bed for him and arranged him so that he was slightly more comfortable. After doing her civic duty, she looked at the bed for a moment, taking in how strange the whole situation was. Earlier she had thought about how easy it was to imagine they were back in their old West Ham, this situation here was possibly one of the most unbelievable that she had encountered so far on their stay in the New Ham. 

Concentrating on her breathing once again, she made the odd move of climbing into Harry’s bed. She tried for a moment not to smell his scent on the sheets but it proved impossible when she was wrapped up in them and besides, she realised with a slight start, she was well aware of Harry’s scent from all the times they had been physically close to each other, if not emotionally. Cologne and something woody. She thought to herself. 

In response to this realisation, the warmth in her stomach grew again and Cassandra clamped her eyes shut in an attempt to stop any of this from going on. She didn’t want to be the girl that fell in love with the jerk. But what happened when Harry changed the rules and decided not to play his part properly? 

Squeezing the material of the pillowcase between her hands, Cassandra fought to clear her mind of any thoughts like that. She was convinced that everything would be back to normal in the morning. Well, not everything. She was passed the point of believing that they were all having a collective dream and would wake up to find they had never left and their parents were making them breakfast downstairs like any other day. But at least Harry would be back to his normal, sarcastic self. She was sure of that.

**Author's Note:**

> Spoiler...Cassandra shouldn't be so sure! 
> 
> Loved writing this fic because I absolutely love these characters and this pairing even though they didn't really get much screen time in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, there is a second chapter definitely coming about the morning after prom and then I'm kind of thinking of having another about Harry's developing drug problem and how Cassandra reacts to it but we shall see!


End file.
